JPH0957983A - Manufacture of ink jet recording head - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To manufacture a precise ink jet recording head having high reliability by less steps. SOLUTION: A metal cavitation resistant film 5 is formed on the surface of a protective film 4 on the surface of a base 1 for holding an energy generating element 2. A metal film 6 is formed on the surface of a top plate 8 made of resin for forming an ink channel 7 and an ink discharge port. The film 5 formed on the board 1 is welded to be connected to the film 6 formed on the plate 8 by emitting by a YAG laser.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a technical field to which a method for manufacturing an ink jet recording head, which is mounted on an ink jet recording apparatus and ejects small droplets of a recording liquid toward a recording medium, belongs.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In various devices such as computers, word processors, facsimile machines, copying machines and printers,
As a means for recording on a recording medium such as paper, an inkjet recording apparatus is being widely used because it can perform high-speed recording without generating noise and can easily record a color image.

An ink jet recording head provided in an ink jet recording apparatus has a structure in which ink is ejected from a position facing a recording medium by inputting a signal current from the ink jet recording apparatus to record a character or an image image on the recording medium. Has become.

FIG. 3 is a schematic view showing a cross section of a conventional ink jet recording head.

Conventionally, as one of the methods for assembling an ink jet recording head, a substrate having an energy generating element 3 for ejecting ink (hereinafter referred to as a heater board).
And the top plate 8 having the ink flow path 7 and the discharge port formed in advance, and then the energy generating element 3 of the heater board 1 and the ink discharge port of the top plate 8 are aligned by means of image processing or the like, A method in which the top plate 8 and the heater board 1 are pressure-bonded to each other by the pressing spring 19 is adopted.
In addition, the gap between the heater board 1 and the top plate 8 is sealed with a sealant to prevent ink leakage.

[0006]

However, in assembling the above-mentioned ink jet recording head, the ejection characteristics of ink largely change depending on the shape and dimensional accuracy of the pressing spring 19 and the pressing position, and particularly in a long ink jet recording head. It is difficult to satisfactorily press the top plate 8 onto the substrate 1. Further, even in the step of sealing the gap between the substrate and the top plate, there is a problem that the process time becomes long because it takes time to cure the liquid sealant, and at the same time, in the long inkjet head It is becoming more and more difficult to pour the stopping agent into a necessary place without excess or deficiency.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, and an object thereof is to provide a method for manufacturing an ink jet recording head which can reduce the cost and can be easily and precisely manufactured. .

[0008]

Therefore, in the method of manufacturing an ink jet recording head according to the present invention, a substrate on which an electrothermal converting element for generating energy for ejecting a recording liquid is provided, and an ink flow path. And a method for manufacturing an inkjet recording head in which a resin-made top plate that forms an ink ejection port is adhered to each other, wherein a metal anti-cavitation layer formed on the substrate and a metal formed on the top plate are formed. A method for manufacturing an ink jet recording head, comprising a step of irradiating a YAG laser and welding and adhering.

Further, the method of manufacturing an ink jet recording head, wherein the metal of the cavitation resistant layer of the substrate is tantalum or tantalum pentoxide.

Alternatively, the metal formed on the top plate is any one of tantalum, molybdenum, niobium, titanium, or tungsten. Further, the metal formed on the top plate is not formed. According to the method for manufacturing an inkjet recording head described above, which is performed by a spatter,
The above-mentioned object is achieved.

[0011]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION The present invention aligns an energy generating element formed on a heater board with an ink flow path and an ejection port formed on a top plate, and irradiates a YAG laser while pressing them together. The feature is that the cavitation resistant film on the heater board side and the metal on the top plate side are welded to bond the heater board and the top plate. Since the resin top plate has ink passages and ink discharge ports formed in advance, the major problem in bonding the top plate and the heater board is to suppress deformation of these minute structures as much as possible to obtain high adhesive strength. Is. When welding the heater board and the top plate, the point is how to apply the heat energy to a necessary place in a short time.

A major feature of the present invention is to provide a metal layer on the top plate side and weld the metal with a YAG laser beam. The YAG laser light has a very high transmittance on the resin top plate, and the top plate is difficult to melt even when the laser beam is applied to the top plate. Especially, polysulfone or polyether sulfone used as the resin top plate of the ink jet recording head. Since the resin (1) has no hydrogen bond in its molecular structure, it has a low absorptance of YAG laser light among general-purpose resins. For this reason, if a laser is focused on the interface between the heater board and the top plate to be adhered, the laser transmits the top plate and converts it into heat energy at the bonding surface where metal is present, and the cavitation resistant film of the heater board The metal of the top plate is welded, and the heater board and the top plate can be bonded.

[0013]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

(Embodiment 1) An embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail below.

FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view showing a characteristic process of the embodiment. FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view of the same.

In this embodiment, the cavitation-resistant tantalum 5 formed on the heater board 1 and the metal (tantalum Ta) 6 formed on the top plate 8 are welded together to bond the heater board 1 and the top plate 8 to each other. Will be explained.

The heater board 1 is formed by forming a tantalum film as the energy generating element 3, the aluminum wiring pattern, the protective film 4 and the cavitation resistant layer 5 by a vacuum film forming method and a general-purpose photolithography technique.

The top plate 8 is completed by forming an ink supply path 9, a liquid chamber and a nozzle by an injection molding method and opening an ink ejection port by an excimer laser. After that, the metal 6 is deposited on the nozzle of the top plate 8 by sputtering. Since the sputtering method can deposit a metal at a low temperature, the metal can be deposited on the top plate 8 at a temperature at which the top plate 8 does not melt. In Example 1, tantalum was deposited on the top plate 8. The film forming apparatus used at this time was SP-730H manufactured by Nichiden Anelva, and the condition was RF power =
1 (Kw), Ar pressure = 0.5 (Pa), and the film thickness is 0.
It was 2 μm.

Then, the heater board is cut with a dicing saw, the heater board 1 is die-bonded to the aluminum base plate, and the PCB (printed circuit board) contact pad and the contact pad of the heater board adhered to the aluminum base plate are bonded to each other. Electrical connection was made by wire bonding.

Next, the top plate was placed on the electrically connected substrate, and the energy generation element on the heater board and the ink discharge port of the top plate were aligned while adsorbing the top plate with the glass fingers 10. The alignment is performed by previously recognizing the alignment mark position formed on the substrate by image processing,
The ink discharge port was moved to the mark position by the glass finger 10 while performing image processing.

Then, while pressing the top plate 8 against the surface of the substrate 1 with the glass fingers 10, as shown in FIG.
Irradiated with laser. LU100 manufactured by Hitachi Construction Machinery Co., Ltd. was used as the laser irradiation device, and irradiation was performed at a pulse energy of 15 J, a pulse width of 1 ms and 300 Hz for 1 sec. The base plate fixing jig 13 was installed so that the substrate surface was 60 mm higher than the focus position. The diameter of the heater board surface is φ20 with respect to the defocus position,
Laser irradiation is possible over the entire heater board (5 x 12 mm). In addition, the upper surface 3 of the glass finger 10
A nickel perforated mask (7 × 14) corresponding to the irradiation area was set at a position of mm to limit the laser irradiation area.

By the above operation, it is possible to weld the metal of the heater board and the top plate and firmly bond them.

(Embodiment 2) In this embodiment, tantalum which is a cavitation-resistant metal formed on the heater board and the metal formed on the top plate side are welded with a metal other than tantalum, and the heater board and the top plate are welded. An example in which is bonded will be described with reference to Table 1.

[0024]

[Table 1]

Table 1 shows the results of Example 2. Tantalum is used for the anti-cavitation film on the heater board side,
The metal to be deposited on the top plate is molybdenum, niobium, titanium,
When tungsten, gold, platinum, silver, and nickel were used, as shown in this table, molidevden, niobium, titanium, and tungsten could be welded well, and the heater board and top plate could be firmly bonded.

The film forming conditions and the laser irradiation conditions were the same as in Example-1.

(Embodiment 3) In this embodiment, the cavitation-resistant metal formed on the heater board is made into tantalum pentoxide, and various metals are deposited on the top plate side to bond the heater board to the top plate. An example will be described.

Table 1 shows the results of Example-3. When the anti-cavitation film on the heater board side is made of tantalum pentoxide and the metal to be formed on the top plate side is made of tantalum, molybdenum, niobium, titanium, tungsten, gold, platinum, silver, nickel, as shown in this table, tantalum, Molybdenum, niobium, titanium. Tungsten can be welded well,
The heater board and the top plate could be firmly bonded.

The film forming conditions and the laser irradiation conditions were the same as in Example-1.

[0030]

As described above, according to the invention of the present application, the cavitation resistant film on the heater board side and the metal on the top plate side are welded by irradiation of YAG laser to bond the heater board and the top plate. This makes it possible to create an inkjet recording head in which the heater board and the top plate are in close contact and stable ejection is possible. Further, since it is not necessary to use a spring retainer, a spring, a spring retainer device, etc. are not required, and the cost can be reduced. Even when a spring is used in combination, the spring may be an auxiliary pressing member, so that the dimensions and pressing position are not strictly planned, and the yield can be improved. In addition, it is not necessary to inject a sealant for sealing the joint between the heater board and the top plate, and the process can be shortened.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view showing a characteristic step of a method for manufacturing an inkjet recording head of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view showing characteristic steps of a method for manufacturing an inkjet recording head of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic view showing a cross section of a conventional inkjet recording head.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Silicon Substrate 2 Heat Storage Layer 3 Energy Generation Element 4 Protective Film (Insulating Layer) 5 Cavitation Resistant Film 6 Metal on Top Plate 7 Flow Path 8 Top Plate 9 Ink Supply Path 10 Glass Finger 11 Laser Light 12 Laser Optical System 13 Base Plate Fixation Jig 14 Heater board 15 Butting pin 16 Base plate 17 PCB (Printed circuit board) 18 Glass finger 19 Spring

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A substrate on which an electrothermal conversion element that generates energy for ejecting a recording liquid is disposed, and a resin top plate that forms an ink flow path and an ink ejection port are formed by bonding. An inkjet recording head manufacturing method, which comprises a step of irradiating a YAG laser to weld and adhere a metal anti-cavitation layer formed on the substrate and a metal formed on the top plate. Recording head manufacturing method. 2. The method of manufacturing an ink jet recording head according to claim 1, wherein the metal of the anti-cavitation layer of the substrate is tantalum or tantalum pentoxide. 3. The metal formed on the top plate is tantalum,
3. The method for manufacturing an ink jet recording head according to claim 1, wherein the method is one of molybdenum, niobium, titanium, or tungsten. 4. The method for manufacturing an ink jet recording head according to claim 1, wherein the metal film is formed on the top plate by a spatter.